The year 1907 was a great year for prohibition. First of all it was the year of the Chinese Imperial¹ Edict against opium. How all Christian nations ought to rejoice over that! Missionaries in the interior of China, and who are acquainted quite generally with Chinese life, tell us that the law is being enforced, and that thoroly.
Georgia and Alabama both voted prohibition during the year. One hundred counties in Connecticut were won to prohibition, and it has been seriously proposed, it is said, to make that a presidential issue for the Democratic Party.
Oklahoma entered the Union with a law forbidding the manufacture and sale of intoxicants; and the sewers of Oklahoma City, when the constitution went into effect, were flushed with 2,300 barrels of contraband beer. Some of the poor slaves to the habit drank out of the sewers.
Two of Delaware's counties went dry at the November election. Chicago added a square mile to its prohibition territory. Thousands of the employees of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad took the pledge.
Over in Europe, the government of Rumania has planned drastic measurements to check drunkards by placing the sale of brandy and whisky under the control of the state, and saloons under the control of the municipalities.
What a blessing it would have been if San Francisco after her experiment in prohibition had so remained until the present time. It can be safely said that a great deal of her political corruption has been fostered by the murky atmosphere of saloons.
Mr. J. W. Elsworth, the New York millionaire coal dealer, offered the town of Hudson the sum of $300,000 for a new municipal light plant and a new sewerage system if the town passed prohibition. As a result the town voted prohibition 266 to 138.